Does Perma Death make a game scarier?

[JawlessWarrior]

Are you saying you didn't crawl through TDD?!?
I spent my entire TDD experience crawling against the walls making sure no monsters were trying to sneak up on me... (I didn't die a single time [proud])

Although now whenever I encounter a monster I just sidestrafe my way past him (this is extremely difficult with the justine monsters though)

Anyhow I like permadeath, but I think there should be a few checkpoints to make sure the player doesnt't have to redo everything.

I didn't sprint the whole thing by any means, but I didn't crawl either. The only place I used crouch the entire time was in the choir and after I saw my 3rd monster in the prison. The only time I died was in the sewers when I panicked and didn't open a door all the way before trying to run through it. (And hitting myself repeatedly with a brick trying to do the bridge puzzle in the [cistern?].)

Wouldn't checkpoints defeat the purpose of perma-death? I don't think it is permanent if there are checkpoints. TDD's death system was too easy though. We do need something a tad harder, but I don't think perma-death is it.